CD Review: Jupiter in Velvet “Beautiful New Day”

In order to make an impact in music, sometimes you have to make a move. That move might actually be just what you need to jump start your career. That is just what happened when an artist known as Jupiter in Velvet left the United States for new horizons over in the UK. Once overseas, the singer-songwriter started incorporating influences he had yet to use in his previous songs that had been written while he had been associated with bands back in the United States. That new, more rounded feel to the music helped to influence the songs that can be found on Jupiter in Velvet’s new. That album is entitled Beautiful New Day.

Beautiful New Day by Jupiter in Velvet begins with the track “Heavy Like a Brick”. Like the title of the track suggests, the song starts the newest album from the UK-based band off with a sound that is hard, musically-speaking. The Hard Rock track features a buzz guitar that helps to create that hardness in the music. The vocals for the track evoke the sound of Marc Bolan of T-Rex fame. What the track comes off feeling like is a combination of T-Rex and Queens of the Stone Age. The heaviness of QOTSA and the lighter approach of T-Rex balance each other out to create the feel of the track.

The album continues with the song “Can’t Get it Right”. The track blends together two different styles of music into one song. Part of the music seems to come from the Power Rock era of music from the eighties while it also seems to contain some influence from David Bowie. Together, the two styles of music combine to create a track that is undeniably Rock and Roll.

Jupiter in Velvet’s new album continues with the track “Monsters”. With this track, the music takes on a slightly unique feel. It doesn’t really fall into any specific category as far as Rock and Roll is concerned. The reason for that is because the track seems to contain some Glam Rock influence as well as a good deal of New Wave influence as well. One particular New Wave influence that comes through on the track is from the band Duran Duran. The blending of the two influences on the track sets the track in a rather retro sound but not to the point where it feels out of place in today’s music industry. After all, bands like The Killers (which is one of Jupiter in Velvet’s modern influences) draw their sound from the bands from the past.

The sound and feel of the music change on the track “Metanoia”. Where the previous tracks contained an electric quality to the music, “Metanoia” finds Jupiter in Velvet creating a track with an acoustic feel to the music. And while the acoustic guitar is a large part to the music on the song, the track also contains a powerful beat with a strong groove to it as well as a bassline that adds to the groove provided by the drums. Add in electric guitars to add the depth to the music and what is created is a track that would have been right at home within the music that was on the radio during the time of the New Wave era. Not necessarily New Wave itself, “Metanoia” would have fit right in with the music at that time.

The next track on the album is where the release gets its name. It’s also one of the more unusual tracks on the album. “The Day I Fell from the Stars” combines a strong Alternative Rock backbone with a slight orchestra feel that comes courtesy of keyboards on the track. The title of the track comes from the refrain where lyrics are sung that call for a “beautiful new day”. The majority of the song contains an unmistakable Alternative Rock feel to it that brings to mind band likes Soundgarden who add a great deal of energy to their songs. While the Alternative Rock influence comes from Soundgarden and other bands from the nineties, the aforementioned orchestral approach in the background of the track brings to mind songs from Electric Light Orchestra, and with Jupiter in Velvet now being situated over in the United Kingdom, the inclusion of ELO as an influence should not be much of a surprise.

While most of the previous tracks are largely influenced by the sound and style of Alternative Rock, the next track on the release takes a different approach. The song “U Can’t Beat Me” finds Jupiter in Velvet’s style changing a bit as the track takes on more of a New Wave/Glam Rock approach. In fact, the sound of the electronic claps on the track bring to mind music from the eighties, which adds to the eighties feel on the track. The track ultimately makes the listener think of a lost track from the likes of the Massachusettes-based group The J. Geils Band.

One track that appears rather late on the Beautiful New Day release by Jupiter in Velvet is “Kiss the Flame”. The track begins with the sound of the bass and soon finds the electric guitar joining in before the rest of the instrumentation helps to set the track in motion. Like much of the earlier parts of Beautiful New Day by Jupiter in Velvet, the music of the track features a strong retro feel to it. The track features a strong guitar part as that particular guitar comes with a strong amount of reverb to it. That beginning of the track features a somewhat low-key feel to it; at the very least, that section is low-key when compared to the rest of the track. Eventually, the music segues to a much harder, driving pace. With everything that helps to create the song, “Kiss the Flame” ends up being one of the strongest, standout tracks on the album.

Beautiful New Day, the new release by Jupiter in Velvet, is an album that features music that uses influences from many different genres of modern-day Rock and Roll. Even with the inclusion of older styles like New Wave or Glam Rock, the resulting songs on the album are strong and Beautiful New Day by Jupiter in Velvet come across as fresh because of the inclusion of both the older and newer influences at the same time.